Dr. Gorlick on the Potential of ADCs in Osteosarcoma

Richard Gorlick, MD, division head of the Division of Pediatrics at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses the potential of antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) in patients with osteosarcoma.

The ADC BT1769 is currently being examined in human clinical trials, having already gone through phase 2 clinical trials and phase 1 safety studies, Gorlick says. One of the methods that investigators utilized to identify proteins in this patient population involved examining target expression in normal tissue after identifying molecular targets that are frequently expressed in osteosarcoma. From there, investigators sought to confirm whether there was a differential expression, at a minimum, between tumor tissue and normal tissue, Gorlick says. 

Osteosarcoma is treated with standard cytotoxic chemotherapy, however, ADCs can go after cells that express a certain target, Gorlick explains. This offers an advantage over chemotherapy, as the cytotoxic adverse effects (AEs) from an ADC will not affect the whole body. Due to this, investigators theorize that even if the same agents are being utilized, the AEs will be less, Gorlick concludes.